i28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



far more thoroughgoing than any yet attained ; he will consolidate him- 

 self, will get together his powers and faculties, will reach a degree of 

 integrity as yet only foreshadowed. When that time comes man will 

 see as never before how much bigger a being he is than his intellect; 

 how much more he can be and do by putting his whole self, his feeling, 

 his emotion, his sentiment, as well as his mind and will, into his work. 



In that day popular sentiment will not hold almost all creatures 

 which are more or less obscure as utterly good-for-nothing and to be 

 trodden underfoot without a passing thought; will not hold every 

 worm, every spider, every snake forejudged and forecondemned as a 

 poisonous " horrid thing." There will be a suspension of popular 

 judgment in these matters, as there now is of scientific. There will be 

 a general disposition to fair play toward all things that live; a desire 

 to treat each according to its merits — to kill it, humanely, if it prove 

 really harmful, or if undoubted benefit may come from so doing; but 

 otherwise to allow it to go its way. And be it specially noted that the 

 benefits of this new day will not end in better sentiment and feeling 

 alone. Equally great good will come to knowledge and interpretation. 

 A tinge of feeling, of sentiment, toward organisms promotes interest, 

 interest promotes attention, and attention is an essential prerequisite 

 to the acquisition of knowledge and to sound reasoning. We learn most 

 quickly, most spontaneously, most comprehensively, most securely, 

 things that interest us, and things interest us most toward which the 

 affections go out. 



It used to be said of Louis Agassiz that he handled his specimens as 

 though he were in love with them ; I submit the question to my fellow- 

 students in zoology and botany: Do you not ordinarily come to have a 

 real fondness for the animals and plants you study ? I do, and do not 

 hesitate to say that through this affectionate interest has come one of 

 my main impulses to and satisfactions in zoology. I have no doubt that 

 feeling has been an element in whatever of effectiveness my work has 

 had. Of course the orthodox intellectualist's reply to this will be 

 prompt and in its accustomed tone of finality. " Yes," most biologists 

 will say, " we certainly are fond of the organisms we deal with. We 

 have an eye for the gracefulness of form and movement and the beauty 

 of color that abound everywhere among living things; but this has 

 nothing to do with our biology." Some will go further and declare that 

 not only does feeling contribute nothing to achievement in science, but 

 that it is actually hostile to such achievement. To keep sentimentalism 

 at arm's length is exactly one of the things biology has to do, they will 

 say ; and will point to the mischievousness of the modern nature-fakers. 



This is not the place to consider either illegitimate or legitimate 

 fancifulness in writing about animals. I merely express the conviction 

 that much as is to be deplored the flood of mercenary falsity concerning 



